James St Vincent Saumarez, 4th Baron de Saumarez (17 July 1843 – 25 April 1937), was a

British diplomat His Majesty's Diplomatic Service (HMDS) is the diplomatic service of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, dealing with foreign affairs and representing British interests overseas, as opposed to the Home Civil Service, which ...

and peer, for some forty-five years a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

. The name is pronounced "Sommerez".

Early life

Born in London, while his parents were living at 41, Prince's Gate,

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

, J. A. Venn, ''Alumni Cantabrigienses'', Part II (1752 to 1900), vol. V (1953)
p. 424
/ref> Saumarez was a grandson of

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Lord de Saumarez (1757–1836), for whom the peerage was created, and was the eldest son of Colonel John Saumarez, 3rd Baron de Saumarez, an army officer, by his marriage to Caroline Esther Rhodes, a daughter of William Rhodes.G. E. Cokayne et al, ''The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant'', reprint in 6 volumes, Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000, vol. II, p. 228. He was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

, and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he matriculated in the Lent term of 1861 and graduated BA in 1863, promoted to MA in 1867.

Life and career

After rising to the rank of captain in the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

, Saumarez joined the

Diplomatic Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to ...

in 1867. His overseas postings were to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(1868),

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

(1872),

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

(1873),

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(1875), Paris and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

(1880), and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

(1881). In 1869, he exercised his ''droit de retraite'' to buy

Saumarez Park Saumarez Park is the largest public park on the island of Guernsey. The Park The park, one of the island's main social venues, is located in the Parish of Castel, about 4 km from the centre of Saint Peter Port. It contains various facili ...

and the Le Guet estate at Castel on the island of

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

, after his father, the third Baron, had put the property up for sale.How the de Saumarez family shaped the island
dated 10 March 2007, at guernseypress.com, accessed 8 November 2015. On 10 October 1882, while serving as Second Secretary in the British embassy to the King of the Belgians, Saumarez married Jane Anne Broke, eldest daughter of Captain Charles Acton Vere-Broke, and the granddaughter of another

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer, Admiral Sir Philip Broke, "Broke of the ". He retired from the Diplomatic Corps in 1885, and in 1891 succeeded his father as Baron de Saumarez and as a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

.de Saumarez, Baron (UK, 1831)
at cracroftspeerage.co.uk (online edition), accessed 8 November 2015''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Br ...

'', vol. 1 (2003), p. 1113. In 1887, on the death of her uncle Admiral Sir George Broke-Middleton, his wife inherited the Shrubland Park,

Broke Hall Broke Hall is an English country house at Nacton, near Ipswich, Suffolk. It overlooks the River Orwell, opposite Pin Mill. The gardens were landscaped by Humphry Repton in 1794, and the house is Grade II* listed. The site was purchased by Sir R ...

, and Livermore Park estates in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. With his wife, Saumarez had three daughters, Evelyn (1883–1934), Marion (born 1885), and Gladys (1887–1975), and lastly one son, James St Vincent Broke Saumarez (1889–1969). He spent many years in developing Saumarez Park, including building a Japanese house and temple there. He acquired the temple in Japan, had it dismantled and shipped to Europe, then re-erected it on his Guernsey estate. In 1912 his portrait was painted by

Thérèse Geraldy Thérèse-Marie-Rosine Geraldy (18 June 1884 – 31 July 1965) was a French portrait artist. Life Born at Paris, Geraldy was the daughter of Louis Paul Lucien Geraldy, an artist, by his marriage to Marie-Anne-Elizabeth Delsarte, a drawing mistre ...

. He died at Saumarez Park in 1937, and was succeeded by his son, James.

Descendants

Saumarez had several grandchildren by his son and his daughter Evelyn. His granddaughter Christine Saumarez married the equestrian

Harry Llewellyn Sir Henry Morton Llewellyn, 3rd Baronet, (18 July 1911 – 15 November 1999) was a British equestrian champion. He was born the second son of a colliery owner, Sir David Llewellyn, 1st Baronet. Background A younger son, Llewellyn was seco ...

and was the mother of Dai and

Roddy Llewellyn Sir Roderic Victor Llewellyn, 5th Baronet (born 9 October 1947), is a British baronet, garden designer, journalist, author, and television presenter. He had an eight-year relationship with Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, the younger sist ...

.''Burke's Peerage'', vol. 2 (2003), p. 2370. He is also the great-grandfather of the present peer,

Eric Saumarez, 7th Baron de Saumarez Eric Douglas Saumarez, 7th Baron de Saumarez (born 13 August 1956), is a British hereditary peer. Life Born and brought up in Suffolk, Saumarez is the son of James Victor Broke Saumarez, 6th Baron de Saumarez, by his marriage to Joan Beryl Charl ...

References

External links

Portrait
at BBC.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:de Saumarez, James Saumarez, 4th Baron 1843 births 1937 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Eldest sons of British hereditary barons British diplomats in East Asia Grenadier Guards officers Guernsey people Members of HM Diplomatic Service People educated at Cheltenham College People educated at Eton College

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

19th-century British diplomats